No hiding from draft abroad – Kiev

Ukrainian consular offices in foreign nations will not serve fighting-age men who are unwilling to risk their lives for their country’s survival, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Tuesday.

According to Ukrainian media, Kiev’s diplomatic missions in several Western nations stopped processing such service requests on Tuesday. Even documents that have been finalized are not being handed over to Ukrainians, reports said.

Kuleba confirmed that he ordered the policy change and that it is meant to encourage men to come back to Ukraine for possible call up for military service.

”How it looks like now: a man of conscription age went abroad, showed his state that he does not care about its survival, and then comes and wants to receive services from this state. It does not work this way. Our country is at war,” he said on social media.

The order to deny consular services to all men aged 18 to 60 was first revealed by Ukrainian media on Monday. Kuleba described his decision as “fair” and in line with the reform of the military mobilization system, which President Vladimir Zelensky signed into law this month. The changes include various punishments for avoiding the draft.

According to EU officials, an estimated 650,000 Ukrainian men of fighting age are living in its member states. Kiev has identified that pool as a significant untapped source of manpower for the armed forces.

The changes in military service laws include the lowering of the draft age from 27 to 25, an overhaul of available exemptions and a requirement that potential conscripts update their personal data with the Defense Ministry so that they can be easily issued summonses. All men aged 18 to 60, regardless of eligibility, will be required to carry papers confirming their registration with a conscription office, after the reform enters force next month.

Asked in early April how many troops Kiev intended to mobilize, Zelensky dodged the question and claimed that Moscow had plans to enroll 300,000 additional troops. Russian officials said that was not true, since its military attracts enough volunteers to meet its personnel goals.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday that Ukrainian military losses since February 2022, when the hostilities began, were approaching 500,000.

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